Kanto Journey
by Thetrister
Summary: Tristan travels through Kanto trying to become the champion of the region
1. Pallet Town- Pewter City

It is the day of Tristans 10th birthday and he is as excited as ever. Today is the day he begins his Pokemon journey and is given his Pokemon. He leaps out his bed and runs downstairs to find his parents with breakfast and his presents ready. he hugs his parents and tears open the presents. He gets a new jacket, a rucksack and a mobile phone, just what he wanted.

"Ah thanks mum, thanks dad! That's amazing!" He says.

"We thought you'd like them. The jackets from your dad and the bags from me. Isn't it cute," says his mum, Carol.

His dad smiles too, "that's just like my old jacket when I travelled the world too. You're gonna be just like your old man."

"Cheers dad, this means so much. I actually want this so much. Mum, dad, my dream is to make you guys proud of me and put us on the map." Tristan raises his fist to the sky and his parents remind him how proud they are already that he is undertaking this journey.

When a trainer turns 10, they leave home and can begin their Pokemon journey. They are given a starter Pokemon by professor oak and then must go on to defeat the gym leaders from that region. Tristan had read up on everything and was determined to become the champion of Kanto. It was a dream for the young trainer and was the main discussion between him and his friends.

Tristan left home with his head in the clouds dreaming of what was to come. He had packed the magazines, new mobile phone and all the money he had, which was virtually nothing. His parents had taugh him to bargain for any possessions and to win battles for money from trainers. He thought about which Pokemon he was going to choose. The fire type Charmander was an interesting choice because everyone knew Charizard was the coolest and fire types were the strongest. There was Bulbasaur who had great attacks like solarbeam and Squirtle who evolved into blastoise and had two mega cannons coming it of its back. Tristan could imagine himself with a Charmander shooting fire or a Bulbasaur using vine whip on its opponents. But he would have to get the Pokemon he wanted before his friends did.

He reached professor oaks lab and waited outside for the professor to open it at 10, when everyone was instructed to be there. It was 9:45. He waited until he saw another figure come into view.

"Steve!" He shouted, the figure walked a bit quicker towards him. It was his old friend Steve who he had known since he was a baby.

"Hey man, how's it going? Actually, who cares, I'm so pumped for this. I've been waiting so long for this day. Hey what one are you choosing?"

Steve had a checked shirt and wore the old moth eaten jeans he usually wore when the two met. Tristan deliberated before giving his answer.

"Well, I want a Charizard so I'm getting Charmander. How friggin cool would it be to have a dragon."

Steve imagined it for a moment then nodded, "yeah, that would be pretty sweet. You'd be the most powerful trainer in Kanto." He rubbed his hands with glee.

Tristan paused, "wait what are you having?" He asked worried.

"I'm getting a Charmander too." Steve replied.

"No way, there's only Charmander in the lab and I'm getting it." Yelled Tristan.

Steve frowned, "chill man, I'm not arguing but Im getting the Charmander here. It's tough but that's life. It suits me more than you."

"I'm taking the Charmander and both you pussies can forget about it," the voice surprised both trainers. Next to them stood Clark, the powerful rival who you knew would give his opinion on something. Tristan glared at Clark as did Steve.

"Anyway boys, that Charmander is mine so you get to choose from Squirtle and Bulbasaur. Don't worry their still good, but I'm having the fire type."

"Get lost Clark, you turned up last for this so Charmander is mine by right," Tristan told him trying to stand up for himself.

" look, it's good you turned up early and that's good character, but a Charmander isn't going to want you for a trainer. It's looking for someone more powerful than yourself."

Clark was not liked by Tristan and Steve. That was obvious. Suddenly, the door to the lab opened and out stepped professor oak. The world renowned Pokemon professor who knew everything about Pokemon.

" thank you for coming, and now if you will all come inside I will talk to you about your Pokemo journey to come," he said and ushered them in.

The three stood in a line opposite the professor as he began to talk to them. Next to him there was a table with three poke balls inside. The three young trainers could only guess what was inside each one.

"This journey before you will be a real test of character, make no bones about it. You may have dreams to defeat the Elite four and become champion of Kanto, or to catch every Pokemon I'm Kanto. Whatever your aims, you must be true to yourself and to your Pokemon and look out for them like you would yourselves. Now, I am not at an age where I am able to do this still which is where you come in. I am looking for you to travel the region and gain as much information as you can on every type of pokemon you come across. I am going to give you each a pokedex, a machine which contains information on every Pokemon in the region and you must each fill it up to complete it." He handed a red device to each trainer. Tristan took his and opened it to see a screen and buttons that confused him.

"This pokedex is voice activated and is used to gather information on Pokemon. Now, before you leave you must each take a Pokemon from my table to begin your journeys. Steve, why don't you go first."

"Awesome, said Steve and he took the pokeball on the right and released it. A blue turtle with a hard shell popped out in a bright light.

"Squirtle, squirt!" It said as it jumped on Steves shoulder. Awesome, thought Tristan.

"Clark, which one is for you?"

Clark took the one in the middle and released it to reveal the fire lizard, Charmander.

"Yes," said Clark, "just what I wanted."

"Excellent choice, it's a tough one to raise but very worth it. Tristan you take the one that's left."

"Damn, I wanted that one," he said to Clark, who glared at him. Tristan took the last pokeball off the table and threw it to the floor where a four legged creature with a bulb on its back popped out. It nuzzled Tristans leg and Tristan picked it up and examined it. Maybe it's not so bad, he thought.

"Now you have each chosen you are able to begin your journeys," said Prof Oak. He smiled as they each left the lab. "And good luck."

Tristan and Bulbasaur were getting to know each other. Tristan had it out of its pokeball and was having it tackle a tree to up its power. Each tackle was getting noticeably tougher and the tree was being separated from the ground slowly. He saw Clark approaching him and Bulbasaur stopped in its tracks.

"Tristan, I think you're weak but I want to test out my pokemons ability, as do you. I propose we battle," he said and extended his hand.

Tristan took a while to make a decision but agreed, "yeah and when I beat you it will feel better than anything."

The two faced off with Charmander against Bulbasaur. Charmander began by using scratch but Tristan had Bulbasaur use tackle. The two collided and Charmander comes off better. Clark has Charmander use leer which makes Bulbasaur freeze for a second and Charmander hits it with scratch. Bulbasaur falls to the ground and faints. Tristan curses and runs over to pick it up.

"Too bad, before I thought you might actually be worth something, but now I'm not so sure. Thanks for helping me test my Charmander," said Clark before leaving abruptly. Tristan falls to the floor and begins to hit the floor in anger.

Tristan is back home and talking to his parents.

"It sucks, my first ever battle and I blew it, I lost," he vents to his dad. Tristans dad looks up from the paper.

"But isn't it good to lose, more things are learnt from losing than from winning. Trust me, son when I started my journey I lost a lot too. But it's how you pick yourself up that matters."

"I suppose, yeah I can still do this. I'll put this behind me and move on. Thanks dad."

He picked up the potions that his parents had brought for him and told his parents he would see them when he was the champion.

"Good luck son, and call us when you get to Viridian. And for goodness sake, make sure you catch a Pokemon soon," Tristan bounded out the door.

"Of course I will dad, alright see you when I'm in Viridian City."

Tristan made it to Viridian City in a few days. It was a long trek but aside from a few battles with wild Pokemon him and Bulbasaur stayed on route. He was very tired and Bulbasaur needed to go to a Pokemon centre, but they both remained untroubled. Tristan had actually trained Bulbasaur up to a stronger level and was teaching it Vine Whip which would be useful for battling. Tristan located the Pokemon centre and sat down after giving Bulbasaur to nurse joy. Tristan was enjoying having Bulbasaur because it was a constant companion that met his needs for friendship and battling. It looked like Bulbasaur was enjoying having tristan around too. The ,usual liking was growing and Tristan had almost forgotten about not getting his preferred Pokemon.

As he sat down on a sofa he saw Steve walk into the centre and ran up to him. Steve saw him coming and they hugged, each glad to see the other.

"Steve, wow how did you get here?"

"I walked doofus," replied Steve.

"Shut up," Tristan smiled goofily. Steve gave his Squirtle to nurse joy and the two sat down for a long awaited chat.

"How's Squirtle doing? Actually, I never asked. You had first choice and wanted Charmander didn't you, why didn't you choose Charmander?" Asked Tristan curiously.

Steve just shrugged and have minimal response, "I dunno, I thought about it and it didn't really bother me which one I got. I suppose they would all be good, wouldn't they."

"Wow, yeah. I hadn't thought of that. I'm really happy with Bulbasaur, it's cute and easy to get along with. I think it's growing on me," replied Tristan.

"Squirtle is great to have. We swim together and it's really a good laugh. I dunno but I'm just having a good time hanging out with it. Don't get me wrong I want to be champion of Kanto so bad but I'm enjoying this part of my journey more than I thought I would." Steve stared away into the distance as he said that. Tristan nodded and thought more about his journey. He and Bulbasaur had never argued, they were only agreeing on everything and Tristan was happy about that.

"Say, what are you planning on doing next?" He asked Steve and Steve turned round.

"I saw a sign that said pewter city is a few days travel from here. The sign also said there is a gym there and I suppose I should go there. It's best to defeat the gyms that are closest because they will be the easiest."

"There's a gym here in Viridian City int there? I heard it from my dad before I left. Let's go check it out." Offered Tristan.

The two got directions off a local and found the gym. It wasn't much of a site. The place was wrecked and there were building blocks around the place. It looked like it hadn't been used in a long time but perhaps like things were going to be refurbished there. Tristan was disappointed

"Damn, I thought this should have been the easiest gym cos it's so close to the start of the journey."

"Don't worry mate, I'm sure it will be fixed in a while." Steve offered his condolence at the gym not being in working order.

The two returned disappointed to the Pokemon centre and retrieved their Pokemon. Tristan resolved to go to the PokeMart and would travel to Pewter city in the morning. Steve said he was leaving today and would try to get through the forest as soon as he could.

"What forest?" "There's one outside Viridian City a way down the road. It will take a fair few days to get through. Good luck, I'm sure I'll see you some time." He said and left. Tristan wondered when he would next.

Tristan was on the route out of Viridian City. He held in his hand a pokeball that he brought from the PokeMart. He was scouting the long grass for any movements when suddenly a ruffle of feathers caught his attentions. He prepared himself and threw himself at the feathers with his pokeball. A bird jumped into the air and Tristan missed his dive. The bird threw up a gust of wind and knocked Tristan back. Tristan managed to get up and get a look at his attacker. His pokedex went off and the voice talked to him, "Pidgey, the pigeon Pokemon. A common sight in forests and woods. It flaps its wings at ground level to kick up blinding sand."

Tristan got his pokeball out and released Bulbasaur for battle. The Pidgey used sand attack to throw sand at Bulbasaur and blind it. It threw whipped up a strong gust of wind and Bulbasaur got caught up and thrown far back. Tristan watched helplessly as Bulbasaur is knocked out and left unable to battle. Tristan runs to Bulbasaur and picks it up before running back to the Pokemon centre he passed 20 minutes ago. He wonders why his tactics were wrong for trying to capture the Pidgey.

Tristan is in Viridian forest and has a pokeball in his hand. He is on the lookout for new Pokemon to capture in order to become a Pokemon master. He wanders off the path and sees a wild spearow in a tree. He throws a pokeball at it but the spearow flies away to avoid it. Tristan runs into tall grass and finds a Pidgey pecking at the ground for food. Tristan changes tact and throws out Bulbasaur to tackle the Pidgey. Bulbasaur hits it hard and Pidgey is thrown into a tree. Tristan punches the air but the Pidgey gets up and fights back, using sand attack. Tristan has Bulbasaur use vine whip to lash at Pidgey which takes a hit and stutters slightly but appears fine. Pidgey the comes in with a gust attack which Tristan tells Bulbasaur to dodge. Bulbasaur is thrown against a tree again but is able to continue and uses tackle. Pidgey dodges and uses sand attack. Bulbasaur is blinded and Pidgey uses gust again. Bulbasaur manages to hit it with a vine whip and Pidgey is thrown to the ground. This time Tristan grabs a pokeball and throws it at Pidgey, Pidgey is unable to resist and the pokeball shuts successfully. Tristan runs to grab the pokeball and kisses it. Bulbasaur runs up to Tristan, who scoops it up and hugs it. Tristan throws the pokeball into the air and introduces himself to Pidgey, Pidgey flies around and lands on a branch.

"Alright Pidgey, I want you to kick up some sand and make sure it hits the target," Instructs Tristan. Pidgey kicks up a sand spree and hits the branch target straight up. "Excellent," says Tristan and has Bulbasaur practise using tackle on certain targets like rocks. Tristan looks at his map and checks where they are up against where pewter city is. He is about three days away by his calculations. Tristan feeds his Pokemon when he is interrupted by a figure that has walked up to him. It is a boy around his age, maybe older, carrying a large net and claiming to be a bug catcher.

"Hello, I believe you must also be from pallet town. I'm a bug catcher and it is my hobby to challenge all those from pallet town. All those who have come my way have battled me and have beaten me. But their battles have been real epics. Tell me have you ever won a Pokemon battle."

Tristan freezes, "well not actually, I've had one but I lost it."

The bug catcher tuts, "well let's get down to business. Make this one as good as my other battles." He throws a pokeball on the field and it reveals a metapod. Tristan uses his pokedex.

"Metapod. This Pokemon is vulnerable to attack while its shell is soft, exposing its weak and tender body."

Tristan throws out his pokeball and reveals Bulbasaur. Bulbasaur begins by using tackle and metapod uses harden. Bulbasaur strikes metapod and it is thrown away. Bug catcher orders another harden and Bulbasaur uses tackle again. Metapod is struck again but appears less damaged than before. Bug catcher orders harden again and Tristan orders vine whip which lashes metapod. Bug catcher laughs and Tristan begins to get impatient.

"Call this a great battle? You're not attacking."

"I don't need to attack when my defence is so high." He orders another harden. Tristan orders a tackle followed by a vine whip which knocks metapod out.

"Yes, we won," shouts Tristan.

"Not yet you haven't, go caterpie," yells bug catcher. Out shoots a caterpie from the pokeball. Again, Tristan aims his pokedex.

"Caterpie, it's shirt feet are tipped with suction cups that allow it to tirelessly scale walls."

Bug catcher orders a tackle, as does Tristan. Caterpie is thrown back and so is Bulbasaur.

"Come on Bulbasaur, show us what you've got," yells Tristan. Bug catcher orders a string shot which stops Bulbasaur in its tracks and makes it unable to move. Tristan has to concede defeat and throws out another pokeball to reveal Pidgey.

"Pidgey, use gust," Pidgey whips up a large wind that sends caterpie flying back. Bug catcher uses string shot which Pidgey avoids by diving down. Pidgey then flings sand into caterpie as Tristan had trained it to then hits it with another gust. Caterpie slumps to the ground and bug catcher calls it back.

"Well done, yes, I'm sure you have trained your Pokemon well. This battle is up there with all my others. You pallet town folk do battle well."

"Erm thanks, I think." Tristan was pleased at his first pokemon battle win.

"If you are planning on battling the gym leader you will need to be fast. I hear that others are in pewter doing this already." Tristan stopped in his tracks, "who is?"

"I battled this boy, very confident with a Charmander. He's going and a boy with a Squirtle a few days ago. I believe he has reached pewter by now." Tristans ears pricked up, "I'm sorry but you battled Steve, and Clark?"

"Yes I think that it have been their names, they were fine battlers." Tristan walks away and continues up to Pewter city.

Tristan is in the Pokemon centre bandaging up Bulbasaur and Pidgey when he is touched on the shoulder. It is a girl, who introduces herself as Mia. "Do I know you?" asks Tristan. "You might not," she begins, "I lived a few houses down from you." Tristan thinks back and can't remember her properly.

"I started my journey a few weeks ago, I think you did at the same time." Tristan thinks back, were there other people who began their journey? "I began three weeks ago. How are you finding it? What Pokemon did you get?" Tristan puts his hand to his face,

"Calm down. Wow! I got a Bulbasaur, come on out Bulbasaur," and Tristan showed Mia his Bulbasaur. "It's so cute," she starts to pet it. "I'll show you mine. It's amazing , wow, just look at it. Go Squirtle." She releases a Squirtle and Tristans jaw drops. "Where you get that from? What the hell? Prof oak said there weren't any more." "Well I got one but I guess that's too bad huh. Anyway, how your mum doing. Don't you remember when we used to play on the street with everyone. Oh wasn't that fun, I guess everyone has started their journeys too. How's Steve doing? And Clark, oh I hate that boy." Tristan replies bluntly, "Steves good and clerks ahead of me. Where are you planning on going next?"

"Well, I've got it planned mostly. I'm going to travel around with Squirtle and go to as many places as I possibly can. My next destination is saffron city, it s got the most beautiful buildings. Why don't you come too?" Tristan smiled but shook his head, "why don't you go to celadon city? It's got some massive department stores. Everything you could want there." Mia smiles back and Tristan thinks she might miss the times before their journey where all the kids in the neighbourhood used to play in the streets and go round each other's houses. Tristan bids her farewell and collects Bulbasaur from nurse joy.

Tristan looks at his map, he had been walking for an hour and was outside pewter gym. There were people outside the gym who he assumed might be trainers too. Tristan walked up and peeped through a window. There wasn't much life inside, shocking really. The two people outside the gym looked at him and begin to talk.

"If you're going in you must be warned. A gym battle is unlike any previous battle you may have had. A gym battle requires intense concentration and power, while a strategy is necessary to win. This gym is run by Brock, the rock type gym leader. All battles will be adhered to the rules set out by the gym leader. Now you have heard are you ready?" Tristan nods confidently and they open a door for him.

"Good luck, you'll need it," he hears them say and they shut the door on him.

Tristan takes a deep breath and looks around the gym. It is well lit and the floor is covered in rocky tiles. It's obvious from the floor and various rocks that the gym is a rock based one and Tristan is impressed. This was his first ever time inside a gym and he had stories about them but never seen them. Now he was inside one it felt incredible, like the first real step of his journey. He was very nervous because a gym battle is something he was untested against so he waited on the battle spot before a figure appeared on the other battle spot.

"Hello," the figure waved to him to reveal the gym leader, a bit older than Tristan. "I'm Brock and I'm the gym leader for pewter city. I believe in rock hard defence and determination! That's why my Pokemon are all rock type! Do you still want to challenge me?" Tristan froze for a second at this question but nodded, signalling his ambition to walk out the gym with the badge.

"Fine then," continued Brock, "show me your best!" He clenched a fist and threw a pokeball on the field. It burst open to reveal a rock type Pokemon. Tristan got out his pokedex.

"Geodude. Found in fields and mountains. Mistaking them for boulders, people often step or trip on them." The Pokemon had two long arms and looked very rough and ready. Tristan gulped, but threw a pokeball on the field. "Go Pidgey," and Pidgey burst out of the pokeball and flew upwards.

"Interesting choice," said Brock, "but did you think about the type advantages?" Tristan stood with his mouth open. What, he thought, what does he mean?

"Err, Pidgey begin with gust," Tristan thought an attack would be the best thing but Brock was quick to react.

"Bury yourself and hold your ground, geodude," herder end and geodude threw itself into the ground and was not budged by the weak winds that threatened to throw it around the arena. Brock smirked, "excellent, now use defence curl." Geodudes whole body hardened and its defence had been raised. Tristan didn't know this though. "Gust again, let's go," he ordered and Pidgey tried to raise stronger winds on geodude. Geodude was untroubled again.

"Kid, have you seen what I did. My pokemons defence was raised by that move. You did know that didn't you?" Tristan shook his head and Brock was surprised.

"Look kid, you need to learn your basics. I'm sure you don't know about the type advantages I have over you. Geodude use tackle." Geodude leapt out of the air and hit Pidgey head on, Pidgey was sent tumbling to the ground and was knocked out. Tristan yelled to Pidgey and returned it. He was trembling, this battle wasn't going as he wanted.

"Kid, you can quit if you want to. It's fine, but you'll need to learn some more about Pokemon before you come back."

"No," Tristan snapped impatiently, "I came here to win and that what I'm gonna do," Brock sighed. "Fine, but this won't be pretty. Go onix."

He threw a pokeball onto the battlefield and it released a gigantic rock snake.

"Wow," mouthed Tristan. "What's that," and got his pokedex out.

"Onix. As it grows, the stone portions of its body harden to become solar to s diamond, but coloured black."

"This is my pride and joy, kid." Tristan threw out his second pokeball which revealed Bulbasaur.

"Bulbasaur use tackle," ordered Tristan. Bulbasaur ran at onix but bounced off, causing minimal damage.

"Stop using weak attacks, have you trained your Pokemon to use any other moves?" Yelled Brock.

"Erm, my Bulbasaur knows vine whip." Tristan replied. "Well use that! It's super effective against my onix because grass has the advantage over rock." Tristan was surprised to hear this. "What advantage?" He asked, clearly unheard of this information.

"Pokemon have type advantages over each other. Grass beats rock, fire beats grass, water beats fire. Use these attacks to beat Pokemon of weaker types. Use wine whip and it will cause greater damage to onix than tackle will." Tristan nodded, "Bulbasaur use vine whip."

The vines shot out of Bulbasaur and made straight for onix. But onix cut them off with a powerful sound blast that threw Bulbasaur back hard. "What was that?" "You think I'm gonna sit back and let you attack me. No kid, that was screech. I'm not submitting for you to learn about Pokemon. That not how gym leaders work."

Tristan was taken aback. "Bulbasaur vine whip," Bulbasaur shot out its vine and struck onix tough body. Onix grabs Bulbasaur with its tail and begins to squeeze the life out of it and Tristan stands there in shock. "Bulbasaur use tackle." Bulbasaur cannot get any strength to attack and onix throws it to the ground to reveal the unconscious Pokemon on the floor.

"No Bulbasaur," screams Tristan and races over to pick it up. Brock returns onix calmly and begins to lecture Tristan.

"Kid I can tell this is your first time against a gym leader. You have a lot to learn. This defeat is humiliating but setbacks happen. You need to learn about type advantages and battling. Train up your Pokemon and come back to battle me again. Don't worry, everyone has to learn these lessons sometime." Tristan looks up at him, "thanks," he mumbles and clutching Bulbasaur, runs to the Pokemon centre.

Tristan is on the outskirts of pewter city a week later and is training Bulbasaur and Pidgey still. Bulbasaur is dodging attacks from Pidgey and avoids a Gust. "Bulbasaur, vine Whip," orders Tristan and Bulbasaur strikes Pidgey with two hard vine slaps. Pidgey falls to the ground. "Pidgey get up," orders Tristan but Pidgey just lays on the ground before finally flying back up, moving slower than usual. Tristan orders a sand attack which Bulbasaur blows back. Bulbasaur uses tackle again but Pidgey dodges by gliding to the left and then attacks from behind with Gust. Bulbasaur is sent flying and Tristan shakes his head at the pair of them. "It's not all bad, I suppose, we are learning."

Tristan looked through the book in the library of the Pokemon centre. It had chapters on type advantage. Tristan skipped through to the chapter. It read : "type advantage is important to winning battles. You must have a Pokemon with s type advantage to have a better chance of winning. If you have a grass type, it will beat a rock type and an electric type will beat a water type. If the type of a move used by a Pokemon is strong against the opponents type, then the damage done is twice the amount of a normal move. If a move type is ineffective, the damage done is half the normal amount." Tristan took in this information and realised that vine whip would do more damage against onix than tackle would. He talked to Dexter about moves and damage and made sure to improve himself in future battles.

Tristan looks at the gym in front of him, about two weeks after the humiliation of losing. He had read about type advantages and the basics of Pokemon battling by reading in the library at the Pokemon centre. He liked Brock, he had encouraged him to work harder and Tristan had done that. He was a better trainer for doing that and his Pokemon were stronger. Tristan walked up to the gym and said hello the two people who opened the door for him again. Tristan took his spot on the battlefield again. The tall figure of Brock appeared on the opposite side of the field. Brock smiled at seeing Tristan and greeted him. "Hello, I see you've come back. Let's hope you have taken on board what I have said and wised up." Tristan nods, "I have. I'm ready to win this and leave with that badge."

"Excellent, you certainly look better than last time," Brock retorted. He threw a pokeball into the air. "Geodude I choose you," and geodude landed on the battlefield. Tristan threw his pokeball into the arena and released Pidgey.

Geodude begin with tackle but Pidgey dodged but moving to its left and then struck with a Quick attack. Brock has geodude use tackle again but Tristan orders a sand attack which blinds geodude and causes it to miss its attack.

"Haha, Pidgey keep up the good work and use quick attack again." Pidgey is too quick for geodude and strikes it again, geodude falls to the ground but Brock orders a defence curl. Geodude defence is raised. "Now geodude, use tackle," geodude slams into Pidgey with a powerful tackle attack. Pidgey falls to the floor and is left reeling at the power of the attack. "Yes, good attack geodude. Use tackle again." Said Brock.

Tristan orders Pidgey to dodge and it manages to fly up to avoid the hit then unleashes a powerful gust which covers the whole arena and sweeps geodude il before throwing it to the floor. Geodude is left unable to continue. Tristan punches the air and Brock claps his hands. "Well done, you have learnt and developed a strategy. Now you must face my onix." He releases a second pokeball and reveals onix, which roars at Tristan.

Tristan orders back Pidgey and sends out Bulbasaur.

"Using the same strategy as before. Well let's see how that goes." Tristan replies, "I've thought this out. You will see a different person to the one that you beat before."

Tristan orders Bulbasaur to use vine whip which slashes at onix and causes it to roar in pain. "Onix, screech," orders Brock and onix lets rip a gigantic sound wave that pierces the arena. Tristan has to cover his ears and watch as Bulbasaur is thrown back. Brock has onix use tackle on Bulbasaur and it dives forward to crush Bulbasaur under its massive weight. "Bulbasaur, are you OK?" Yells Tristan and he is answered as onix gets up and Bulbasaur lies motionless on the ground. However, it recovers, being left weakened. "Yes," screams Tristan and clasps his hands together. "Use vine whip again," he orders. "Onix, use tackle." Bulbasaur dodges the attack and then lashes onix hard with its vines. Tristan orders another vine whip but Brock has onix use screech which causes Bulbasaur to miss. "Bulbasaur, be careful and read to dodge an attack," orders Tristan and Bulbasaur prepares itself by keeping itself crouched. Onix comes charging at it with a high speed tackle and Bulbasaur just manages to dive away. "Again," yells Brock and onix manages to get up and charge again. Bulbasaur manages to avoid the attack again and Tristan orders it to use vine whip while onix is on the ground. Bulbasaur delivers several super effective lashes and onix roars in pain. "Onix, use tackle again," yells Brock but onix is moving slower than the high speed charges it delivered just a few seconds ago. Tristan orders Bulbasaur to keep moving and Bulbasaur dodges the attack before delivering a final vine whip which pushed onix to the floor and leave it unable to continue. Brock returns onix and Tristan runs over to hug Bulbasaur. It has just sunk in that he has won the battle. Brock comes over to shake Tristans hand. "I'm glad you learnt the hard way. Take this lesson and learn to battle better than you ever thought you could. Here take this Boulderbadge. This will show that you have defeated me and is recognition for her you go to the elite four." He hands Tristan a badge that looks like a boulder. "Awesome," Tristan says . "This is amazing. I beat a gym leader." Brock smiles, "you deserved it. It was a good battle. Now, go through mt. Moon because it will take you to cerulean city." Tristan shakes his hand and leaves the gym with his new badge and heads back towards the Pokemon centre.


	2. Cerulean City- Vermillion City

Tristan has gone from strength to strength since he beat Brock. He has caught new Pokemon, beaten tough trainers and has learnt more than he thought he could. He is now in a field just west of cerulean city training up his Pokemon.

"Bulbasaur, use razor leaf at full power," Tristan orders and Bulbasaur unleashes a full power razor leaf that slices the branches off a tree. Excellent, notes Tristan, and orders another razor leaf. This attack was proving very useful because it had more power than vine whip. "Now try again," Bulbasaur rips the branch off the tree completely with the attack. Tristan orders Pidgeotto to whip up a gust that covers the field and sends grass and mud everywhere. "Wow, that's so much better Pidgeotto. Yeah, that'll do." Tristan extends his arm and Pidgeotto flies into it, Tristan feeds it a pellet and strokes its chin. "Alright, that's that now everyone work on dodging. Bulbasaur and Pidgeotto, I want you to dodge quick attack and razor leaf. Spread yourselves apart and do your best there, as we practised. As for you Sandshrew, I think you're at a level where you can up your game a bit." He shows Sandshrew a swiping move with his hand and Sandshrew imitates. "Dexter says you are able to learn slash, and I think this will be a benefit in the long run. Scratch is good, but slash is better." Sandshrew begins to scratch at a tree quickly but Tristan is worried that it is still using scratch. "Sandshrew, you have to stop swiping so quickly and get more power into your wrists. Look!" Tristan does a slashing movement with his hand and positions sandshrews hand so it starts with its hands higher than a scratch. "If you start from a higher position you get more power," he instructed and Sandshrew gives a basic slashing movement. "Good, see. We can move on to developing stronger wrists," Tristan says as he gets the Dumbbells out of his bag for Sandshrew to lift and gain more wrist power. "When I used to watch tv I saw battles and the Pokemon in these battles had great wrist strength. I saw a scythes who used to lift weights with his hand and so the same could be done for you." Sandshrew nods inquisitively and then begins to lift.

The next day Tristan has Bulbasaur have a practise match with Sandshrew. "Bulbasaur dodge then razor leaf." Tristan is precise in his instructions and Bulbasaur dodges the scratching attack by jumping to the left and hits Sandshrew with a razor leaf, at deliberately less power than usual. "Excellent Bulbasaur. Sandshrew, well,done two. Good technique in the attack. The risk is that you could always miss. But you need to keep going and getting more powerful." Sandshrew nods and the two repeat the practise attack, with Sandshrew landing the hit this time. Tristan looks over to Pidgeotto and sees a glint in the sky quickly come down and strike the grass with its wing. "Back up now and get the wing more side on. Create an angle for it." Pidgeotto is quickly up in the air and swings round before launching downwards in an arc with its wing touching the top of the ground. "Yes, that's brilliant Pidgeotto." Tristan had toughened up his training regiments but his Pokemon were still beginners, like him. They were still learning the ways of being under the control of a trainer, it bothered them sometimes when he touched them and made them uncomfortable battling all the time. However they did clearly enjoy battling as there was a thrill in doing so. The weather was fantastic and the conditions were great with springy, dry grass and a soft breeze making it a good time of year to battle. Tristan looked back at Sandshrew and clicked his fingers, "Sandshrew use slash." Sandshrew looked at him and swing its arm high above its head before delivering a blow on Bulbasaur that appeared more powerful than usual. Tristan punched the air, "yeah, that's it. You're getting there." Sandshrew jumped up and down in excitement.

Food was becoming scarce and Tristan was desperate for some money. He came to a house that looked near empty on the edge of cerulean city. He could hear some commotion and a shout, "HELP!" Tristan ignored it but heard the shout again and then "stop! Thief!" Tristan saw a figure with something in his hand jump out through a side window. Tristan gave chase and shouted at the figure to stop. The figure darts into an alley and Tristan follows, throwing a pokeball at the figure and releasing Bulbasaur. "Bulbasaur, vine whip, grab that bag from the thief!" Bulbasaur roared before grabbing the bag with its vines and bringing it back to Tristan. He pats Bulbasaur on the head. "Excellent Bulbasaur, now what's in here?" He opens the back and finds a TM inside and gasps. "Wow, what's this?" He wonders aloud. The thief yells to give it back "ok, you can't steal from a thief. Give that back or I will defeat you and steal your Pokemon." Tristan snaps back at him, "no way. You're not stealing from that house and getting away with it." The thief grabs something from his pocket and throws it in front of him, smirking. He says, "oh yeah, well kid you're in for some serious trouble now. I'm under orders to take this technical machine . Go machop!" The pokeball opens and reveals a machop. Tristan gets out his pokedex.

"Machop. Loves to build its muscles. It trains in all styles of martial arts to become even stronger." Tristan looks it up and down.

"Go Bulbasaur, use Vine Whip," Bulbasaur extended its vines and lashed them towards machop but it's opponent dodged.

"Hahaha, big mistake kid. Machop, karate chop," machop aimed a chop at Bulbasaur who jumped to dodge. "Good job Bulbasaur, use tackle."

Bulbasaur jumped straight at machop and knocked it away. The thief ordered another karate chop which struck Bulbasaur on the side and threw it back, but Bulbasaur shook its head to negate the impact and got up. "Bulbasaur, razor leaf," ordered Tristan and machop was struck by a strong barrage of sharp leaves which threw it against the brick wall of the alleyway. The thief clenched his fist.

"Your tough kid, no questions. Machop get the bag. " with that command, machop left Bulbasaur and aimed straight for Tristan, swiping the bag and jumping over Bulbasaur to the thief. "Bye kid, and don't follow me." Tristan ran after him and released Pidgeotto from its pokeball.

"I need you to scout the air for a man with a machop and a bag. He's a thief, go, now," and Pidgeotto flew into the dark sky and circled the area before cawing loudly to Tristan and flying over a area to his west.

"Good job Pidgeotto, now wing attack," Pidgeotto dived downwards as Tristan and Bulbasaur followed its vague direction. They both heard a scream and Pidgeotto cawing in pain as they caught up to it. Machop was giving it a blow with a karate chop and Pidgeotto struck the ground.

"No! Pidgeotto you can do this. Use gust." Pidgeotto flapped its wings hard to stir up a forceful wind that threw machop and the thief into a gate in front of a house. Machop was left unable to battle. The thief returned it swiftly, "okay you got us that time but not again. Here's my secret weapon," he cackled and threw a second pokeball onto the field. It revealed a yellow bipedal elephant that stood tall. "Hahahaha, say hello Drowzee." Tristan paused, "what is that?" He mumbled and got out his pokedex. "Drowzee. Puts enemies to sleep then eats their dreams. Occasionally gets sick from eating bad dreams." Tristan lowered his pokedex in shock. Eats their dreams, he thought. What could that possibly mean?

"You're dealing with team rocket, kid. Get used to it." The thief cackled and ripped off his shirt to reveal a black vest with the team rocket logo. "Drowzee, show them your hypnosis."

Drowzee waves its hand and began releasing circles from its face towards Pidgeotto. Tristan looked in shock at this new attack and saw Drowzee claps its hands and Pidgeotto dropped to the floor as if unable to move. "Pidgeotto, are you okay?" Yells Tristan but there is no reply from Pidgeotto. He turns to the thief, "what have you done?" He yells and the thief laughs. "Your Pokemon is asleep kid and now it's time for you to sleep too. Say goodbye to your Pokemon. Drowzee hypnosis." Tristan looked at pidgeottos body and saw the waves of energy coming towards him. He was unclear what to do, his mind was lacking a spark through a fear of what was happening. Before the waves could hit, he heard a slice of something hitting the air and a loud yell and a body drop to the ground. He looked up at the waves and saw them disappear. "Bulbasaur," came the loud yell by his side. Tristan turned to see Drowzee on the floor and the thief staring in temporary shock. Tristan had only just pieced what had happened when Drowzee got back up and Tristan ordered another attack to counter. Drowzee used pound which struck Bulbasaur, but Bulbasaur lashed it with a powerful vine whip. "Well done Bulbasaur, again," yelled Tristan. "Drowzee use disable," ordered the thief and a loud flash bang covered the two Pokemon. What was that? Tristan wondered and ordered vine whip again. Bulbasaur was unable to attack with the move and is struck by Pound again, which sends it flying into Tristan. "Oof," is the sound as Tristan is struck by the weight of bulbasaur which throws him back. Tristan grabs his pokedex and hears the entry. "Disable, prevents the attack previously used being used again." "Crap," shouts Tristan. Bulbasaur jumps up and Tristan dusts himself down. Bulbasaur uses razor leaf which strikes Drowzee firmly in the body and throws it back before following up with tackle. The thief yells at Drowzee to get up but Drowzee stays slumped to the floor. Tristan orders a vine whip to get the bag back. Bulbasaur extends its vines and wrestles the bag from the thief before delivering it to Tristan. "Good job everyone. Now that's the end of you," he points to the thief, who begins to run away.

After returning the technical machine to the owners, Tristan was actually given it back to keep because the house owners believed he had done the right thing. Tristan thanks them and moves on with his journey. Tristan taught dig to Sandshrew which liked the move and only added to the range of moves that each of Tristans Pokemon has.

Tristan was walking on a route to vermillion city where the third gym lies. Tristan thinks about what is in vermillion city. When he phoned professor oak to relay him his progress, the professor was impressed and told Tristan what was in vermillion city to expect. Apparently there was a Pokemon fan club and there was a third gym. Tristan was ecstatic to hear this news. There was also a ship. A massive ship at that, called St. Anne. Tristan was intrigued by this because because the professor mentioned the St. Anne as being the biggest ship in Kanto. It had many trainees who you could battle and many shops. Tristan decided to give it a visit when he got to vermillion city.

He stopped on route a few days away from vermillion because of tiredness and lack of food. He had his Pokemon all out and ready for practise when a figure approaches him. "Hello there, I'm a Pokemon trainer like yourself and I couldn't help notice your Pokemon. They all look relatively strong but hungry and tired. Do you have any food?" Tristan shakes his head quietly.

"Well then, i propose a wager. If you defeat me in battle I will give you money for food, if I beat you, you get nothing. How does that sound?" Tristan looked up at him, "that doesn't sound fair for you. Why do you set these conditions like they are?" The trainer looks at him, he must be about 15 or so. "I enjoy battling and you look like you could do with some help. I could leave you alone if you want," and begins to turn away but Tristan extends his hand. "Stop," he says weakly, "i could do with the money," he fumbles. "Excellent, my friend. I'm Jean, nice to meet you" and he shook Tristans hand.

Tristan stood up and made his way some way away from Jean. The two were in a clearing of dry mud ground and it made a good battle field. Jean took a pokeball off his belt and threw it to the ground, it revealed a Pokemon Tristan hadn't seen before. Tristan tilted his head in curiosity and got out his pokedex to identify it.

"Magnemite, uses anti gravity to stay suspended . Appears without warning and uses thunder wave and similar moves." Tristan looked at the interesting Pokemon, a magnet that levitated. Tristan threw out his pokeball into the field and revealed Sandshrew.

"The rules, "Jean began, "are three on three. Switches allowed any time," Tristan nodded.

"Ok, let's begin. Magnemite use sonic boom," ordered Jean and magnetite unleashed a wave of energy which struck Sandshrew in the chest and knocked it back a short distance. Tristan looked surprised at this new attack and Jean filled him in."sonic boom deals the same amount of damage any time and doesn't miss. It's a solid attack to have when the chips are down." Tristan has Sandshrew use defence curl to beef its defence up and it dodges another sonic boom. "Use slash," Tristan orders and Sandshrew delivered a powerful slash to magnetite which was thrown to the floor from the force of the attack.

"Very good," says Jean. "You've trained well, obviously. But magnetite use thunder wave." Magnemite released a strong wave of electricity which struck Sandshrew but the type advantage of Sandshrew meant it was unaffected by the attack. Sandshrew then struck magnemite with slash which threw its opponent to the floor and left it unable to battle.

"Hmmm, not what I expected," said Jean and threw his second pokeball to the field, it was a goldeen. "What's that?" Said Tristan and got out Dexter again,

"Goldeen. It's tail fin billows like an elegant ballroom dress, giving it the nickname of the water queen." It certainly looks nice, thought Tristan. How will it battle on land though.

"Goldeen, use horn attack," said Jean and goldeen Rams forward at Sandshrew. Sandshrew takes the attack head on and is thrust back, but manages to land a slash on goldeen which knocks goldeen back. Jean has goldeen use water gun which strikes Sandshrew before it can dodge and sends it crashing into the ground and left unable to battle. Tristan returns Sandshrew and curses at losing that round. He throws out his second Pokemon, Pidgeotto. It flies upwards quickly and launches into a wing attack that goldeen can't dodge. It spins into the air and comes crashing to the floor. "goldeen, use horn attack," orders Jean and goldeen leaps like a missile at Pidgeotto but the bird dodges. "Use quick attack," yells Tristan and Pidgeotto strikes goldeen with quick attack which throws it to the ground and leaves it unable to battle.

"That was quick my friend, such power," says Jean. "However, I leave my favourite for last," he throws a pokeball onto the battlefield and it releases a charmeleon. Tristan is in awe, "Dexter, I need you."

"Charmeleon. When it swings it's burning tail, it elevates the temperature to unbearably high levels." Tristan gasps at the sight of the evolved form of Charmander. "So that's what it looks like, Pidgeotto be careful about the flame on its tail." Pidgeotto caws back and charmeleon uses ember, but Pidgeotto dodges. Charmeleon launches another ember which hits Pidgeotto and sends it falling to the ground. Charmeleon the launches itself at the grounded bird but Tristan has Pidgeotto kick sand in chameleons face to blind it and fly up. Charmeleon is trying to claw the sand out of its eyes but is caught up in a windstorm which sweeps it up and throws it mercilessly to the ground. Jean orders charmeleon to get up and it hits Pidgeotto with an ember attack while it lines up wing attack. Pidgeotto shakes off the damage and strikes charmeleon with a quick attack. Charmeleon falls to the floor but is okay to continue.

"Use ember again," orders Jean and charmeleon manages to strike Pidgeotto and send it falling to the ground, knocking it out.

Tristan returns Pidgeotto and thinks about the type disadvantage that Bulbasaur will have. He throws the pokeball onto the field to show off Bulbasaur. Bulbasaur roars at charmeleon and Tristan tells it, "Bulbasaur don't worry about the type disadvantage. We can work through it." Charmeleon uses ember which Bulbasaur manages to dodge. "Excellent Bulbasaur, keep on your toes and be ready to dodge anything." Bulbasaur uses tackle which hits charmeleon and sends it flying back but Jean has charmeleon use scratch. Bulbasaur is struck in the face and cries out I pain. Charmeleon then uses ember which hits Bulbasaur and leaves it struggling to move. Tristan calls on it to use razor leaf which surrounds charmeleon but charmeleon burns the leaves with its ember attack. Jean orders leer which lowers bukbasaurs defence and Jean moves in for the kill. Charmeleon opens its mouth for an ember but Tristan has Bulbasaur use vine whip on charmeleons mouth to prevent it. It lashes at charmeleon which causes it to fall to the ground. Charmeleon tries another ember but is struck by a vine whip which causes is to fall to the ground. Jean orders a scratch which is countered by tackle which knocks charmeleon to the ground and leaves it there, unable to battle.

Jean returns charmeleon and Tristan returns Bulbasaur.

"You have won. That's fantastic, well done. As I promised here's your money," he got something out of his pocket and revealed a see through bag of money. Tristans eyes bulged, "there's got to be £300 in there." Jean smiled and patted Tristan on the back. "Go on, kid. If you're going to vermillion city try out the gym there." Tristan asked him back, "what kind of gym is it?" "Electric," replied Jean and he walked off. "Wait," yells Tristan and runs up to Jean. "Wait, how far away is vermillion city? And what Pokemon does the gym have?" Jean puts his hand on his chin, "I think it's 4-5 days travel but there is a Pokemon centre just a day from here. The gym, I think the guy there is a lieutenant. He's one of those types, and he has a raichu I think." Tristan blinks, "what's a raichu?" Jean smiles and explains its the evolved form of pikachu. "I guess I'll find out what that is when I get there," says Tristan aloud after Jean leaves.

Tristan takes in the sights. Tall, glass buildings surround him. It's a marvellous sight with the sun beating down on him. Tristan takes out his map and looks for the Pokemon centre. He needed a place to sleep quickly, he hadn't had a bed for a few weeks and his Pokemon were weak and hungry. Vermillion city looked exactly like Tristan thought it would with its modern buildings. It took Tristan a few minutes to find the Pokemon centre and he healed his Pokemon and booked a place to sleep for the week. He was happy with the facilities in the Pokemon centre and checked out the bookshelf near one of the couches. One of the books was titled, "the elite four, a guide." Tristan picked it up and read about it. The book talked about Bruno, the fighting type master, Agatha, the ghost type master, lorelei, the ice type master and the champion lance. Tristan skipped to lances entry and read about his ability to control dragon type Pokemon. The book showed a picture of his dragon its and tristan gasped. "Wow, a dragon its," he gasped. Dragonite was a legendary Pokemon that only the best of the best had. He gave the book a thorough read and read at the end of people being allowed to battle the elite four only when they have beaten all eight gym leaders. No one beats the elite four because they are so much better thin your average trainer. They had mastered their respective types. Tristan collected his Pokemon and left the Pokemon centre to explore vermillion city.

There is an attraction in vermillion city called the digglet caves and Tristan thought it would be best to check them out at a later date. Whole caves and an underground tunnel dug by Pokemon that connects vermillion city to Viridian City. It was incredible the distance it covered. The cave was inhabited by digglet and the occasional dugtrio which made it a very good site for capturing powerful ground types. Tristan checked out the caves and took a lot of pictures on his phone and sent them to his parents, who also thought the site was magnificent.

Tristan entered the house of the Pokemon fan club to a big surprise. There were many people gathered in the house talking about Pokemon. It was a surprise when Tristan came through the door as everyone looked up and stopped their conversations immediately.

"So," said an elderly gentleman sitting on the couch, "who do we have here?" Tristan was trembling because he thought he had interrupted something important but composed himself. "Well, sir, I'm here because I heard of the Pokemon fan club and thought to myself, I need to have a look for myself. And tell you what, can't say I'm disappointed." The gentleman touched his chin with his hand, "hmmm. What's your favourite Pokemon kid?" Tristan thought for a moment and drew out his answer, attempting to garner further attention. "To tell you the truth sir, I always wanted a Charizard. There's something magnificent about them that you do not get from normal Pokemon. I believe fire types should be appreciated for the beauty they clearly have." The man looked at him, "do you have one, either a Charizard or a fire type on you?" Tristan looked him in the eyes. "I'm afraid I don't sir. I haven't had the pleasure of seeing a Charizard on my journey. I don't have a fire type either. But this isn't about me sir, do you admire the fire types with the same passion as I do." The man looked at him before patting the couch next to him, "sit down my dear boy. I am a furious lover of the fire types. They have a beauty that like you say, no normal Pokemon has. I can show you my favourite if you like." Tristan looked up to him, "it would be an absolute pleasure sir." The man reached into his pocket and fished out a photo of a rapidash. "This," he began, "is my pride and joy, a rapidash. Take this site in my dear boy because this Pokemon is like no other." The man proceeded to chat to Tristan about his love for his rapidash while Tristan feigned interest, trying to escape without offending this clearly powerful man.

"Oh dear, look at the time," says the old man, "I'm sorry my friend. It appears I've been talking about my rapidash for ages. Oh how rude of me. Let me give you this in return." He showed Tristan a ticket for something. " this is a bike pass. There is a bike shop in cerulean city where you can get bikes from. This enables you to get them for free. Simply show them the pass and they will give you the bike. I suppose now you will be in your way. It was fantastic to have you here son and please do visit again." Tristan nodded and exited through the same door he came in. He looked at the pass and decided he would head back to cerulean city when he had defeated the gym here.

The next day Tristan had visited the PokeMart and stocked up on potions and poke balls. He had big plans today, it was the big trip to the St. Anne and its market stalls. He had got some money from his battles on the road and was going to spend it on the best things the ship had to offer. As he got in the queue it was clear he was going to have to wait for a few hours.

Five hours later Tristan flashed the ticket he had been given by Bill to the man and was pushed inside. Inside the main hall were stalls selling food, Pokemon, accessories and all sorts. Tristan wowed at the sight and moved towards a massive crowd in the middle where a battle was happening. There was a girl with a meowth and a man with a Persian. The Persian was slaughtering its opponent and the meowth slumped to the floor with the man shouting out for any more challengers. Tristan ignored the challenge and moved to the stalls. There was a woman selling cakes and another woman selling bracelets. He ignored both but brought a new hat from another stall. It was one of the official Pokemon league ones and he felt fashionable wearing it. He was heading towards another crowd when a hand touched his shoulder. It was a slimy hand and Tristan turned around wearily. "Hi there," Tristan noticed a middle aged man staring at him and pointing to his bag. "I think you are the type of kid who likes a bargain," he began, "in my bag, my friend, I have the bargain for you. Interested? It's not a case of that. You want a bargain, a great Pokemon for a great trainer. I'll give you this swell Magikarp for just £500." Tristan looked at the pokeball and thought it must be rare. "Is it rare?" He asked and the salesman smiled, "kid you have no idea." Tristan gave the guy the money willingly and took the pokeball, thinking he had got himself a bargain.

Tristan headed to the room where the trainers battled. He had a few battles in there before being told where the captains room was. Tristan headed down to the captains room to obtain the TM for cut which apparently could cut down the tree outside the gym. His Pokemon were in fighting order because of the lady who healed Pokemon for free in the healing room. Tristan thought about how Sandshrew had beaten some bloke with a growlithe and was proud at his battles on board in the last few days. The ship was set to sail in the next few days and Tristan aimed to get the TM and leave today. He turned a corner and fell to the floor, having bumped into someone. He rubbed his head and offered to help the other person up but saw Clark standing over him looking angry. "Clark. How did you get here?" Clark fold his arms in disgust, "you mean, how did you get here? I got tickets from my dad." Tristan snarled, "I have as much right to be here as you do. I was given these tickets by some guy called bill in a lighthouse." Clark froze up, "you met bill? He invented the Pokemon computer, where you can give your Pokemon to professor oak. That's incredible." Tristan looked at him with utter contempt "I'll see you later I'm looking for the captains room. I'm trying to get a TM for cut." "Well, I've just been there and you're wasting your time. He's got a stomach ache and wasn't going to give me the TM so I left. Actually, while your here I think we should have another battle to refresh our memories. Our memories of me being better I think." Tristan nodded, "actually, I agree we need to show how I'm better than you." Both trainers threw a pokeball onto the field. Bulbasaur came out of Tristans and a Kandabra come out of clarks. Bulbasaur begins by using tackle but Kandabra stops it with a confusion that make Bulbasaur shine in a blue outline and then throws it back against a cabin wall. "Excellent, Kandabra use kinesis," says Clark and kadabra distracts Bulbasaur by bending one of its spoons and lowering its accuracy. Tristan has Bulbasaur use razor leaf and kadabra is struck by a barrage of sharp leaves that make it cry out in pain. Clark has kadabra use confusion but it is lashed by a hard vine. Kadabra cries out in pain but Bulbasaur misses with another vine. "Damn, Bulbasaur try again." Kadabra uses confusion to throw the vine back again and then grab hold of Bulbasaur and throw it to the floor to leave it unconscious. Tristan punches the air, "return Bulbasaur," he yells angrily and then throws out Pidgeotto. Pidgeotto uses sand attack which blinds kadabra and leaves it defenceless and Clark orders confusion but kadabra cannot see Pidgeotto strike it with a ruthless wing attack which throws it to the floor. Kadabra is left unable to battle and Clark returns it, throwing out his second pokeball. "Go, Pidgeotto," he smirks, "show your power off." He demands and clarks Pidgeotto begins with quick attack which catches Tristans Pidgeotto off guard. Tristan thinks about tactics and orders sand attack which Clark has his Pidgeotto dodge and strike again with wing attack. Tristan has his Pidgeotto counter with the same move and the two birds collide and fall to the floor. Tristans is up first but Clark calls for a gust which sweeps up Tristan Pidgeotto in a powerful wind blast and throws it hard against a wall. Pidgeotto gets up and delivers a powerful quick attack at clarks which sends it thrusting against the floor. Tristan orders a killer blow but clarks Pidgeotto dodges with a sidestep and strikes Tristans Pidgeotto from behind with quick attack of its own. Tristans Pidgeotto is unable to get up despite trying and Tristan returns to send out his third Pokemon. "Magikarp, you're up," he shouts as he throws the pokeball to the ground. Clark stops and stands with his arms folded, "what are you doing?" He asks and Tristan has to defend his choice. "What's wrong? I got this today from a nice salesman and he said its a rare Pokemon." He looks very smug but Clark just chuckles to himself. "Whatever, Tristan. I'm sure you don't know about Magikarp. Rare Pokemon indeed, they only know one move, splash. It doesn't know how to attack and it's useless in battle." Tristan stares at Magikarp, which is uselessly flopping on the floor. "Magikarp attack," orders Tristan but Magikarp simply flops on the ground. Clark laughs hard at Tristans incompetence. Tristan gets up and has Magikarp attack but Clark has Pidgeotto knock it out with a strong wing attack. Magikarp flops against a wall, it is that weak. Tristan curses and sends out Sandshrew. Clark says he expects Tristan to give him a closer battle than last time. Pidgeotto uses wing attack but Sandshrew dodges with dig and then strikes Pidgeotto with the attack. Pidgeotto falls to the ground and faints. Clark returns his fallen Pokemon and then sends out Charmander. Charmander begins by using scratch which Sandshrew counters by dodging and using slash. Charmander roars in pain but gets up and uses ember on Sandshrew which curls up in a ball to avoid major damage. Tristan has Sandshrew use dig and Tristan orders it to surface underneath Charmander when Clark recalls Charmander. As his Pokemon disappears in a bright red Tristan yells at Clark for cheating when Clark snaps back. "It's not cheating. It's a way of changing your Pokemon when it has a type disadvantage. It's tactics." He throws another pokeball onto the field and it reveals a tentacle. Tristan gets out the pokedex.

"Tentacle. Drifts in shallow seas. Anglers who hook them by accident are often punished by its stinging acid." Tristan begins by having Sandshrew use slash but tentacool dodges and strikes it with an acid attack. Sandshrew topples back and then glows purple, meaning it has been poisoned. "Argh, Sandshrew," yells Tristan, "try to hang in there." Sandshrew glows purple and falls over, signalling poison damage. "tentacool, use water gun," orders Clark and tentacool hits Sandshrew head on with a powerful water gun which causes it to go flying into a wall. Tristan curses and orders a slash which hits tentacool and Tristan encourages Sandshrew to use dig. Sandshrew goes to dive down but keels over from poison. Tristan yells at it to get up but Clark can taste victory. "Tentacool, finish this with water gun." Tentacool showers Sandshrew with a super effective blast of water which knocks Sandshrew unconscious. Both trainers return their Pokemon and Tristan falls to his knees. Clark stands a few yards away from him, "well, that went as expected. I'll see you around Tristan." Clark walked calmly past Tristan who grabs his face with his hands and holds them closely to hide the pain at losing again. "I'll never beat him," Tristan wells up but has to wipe his eyes with his arm before anyone sees him, especially Clark. Their rivalry had begun when they were little, Tristan had never liked Clark, never as they had grown up.

Tristan continued down the hall towards where he hoped the captains dorm was. He came to a room on the end of the corridor with a star on the door. It was marked "captains room. Private." Tristan ignored the sign and pushed on the door, it was open.

The room was massive, bigger than any in the ship and inside the room was the captain lying on the couch. He looked blue and unwell. "Who's there, "he grunted while vaguely looking in the direction of the door. "You better not be that little shit from earlier," Tristan gulped and said he was only there for the hm cut. The captain looks at him and says, "I'll give it to you for a glass of water. Just stop people coming into my room when they feel like it." Tristan poured out the water, "when does the ship depart?" He asked. The captain took the water and replied, "about 3 days from now. Look kid, thanks for the drink but I'm too weak to talk. See that table over there, there's the HM. Take it and leave, OK." Tristan nodded and took the hm. He got off the St Anne later that day having brought a couple of items. He failed to get a refund for Magikarp which annoyed him but he didn't know the power that Magikarp could possess.


	3. Celadon City- Saffron City

A darkened sky is illuminated by street lamps in celadon city. Tristan sleeps in his room in the Pokemon centre. The beds are simple mattresses one can put on the floor with pillows that you rent out for a small fee, say £10 for a night sleep. Tristan was comfortable with the simple bed, it was definitely better after you had spent weeks trekking and sleeping on cold forest floors in a sleeping bag. That was one aspect of being a Pokemon trainer that Tristan hadn't grown comfortable with yet. There were Pokemon dancing in the sky and Ivysaur watched them with intent. Tristan was asleep and had let his Pokemon out of their poke balls to sleep in the same room as him. Ivysaur watched the night sky roll along through the window. It looked longingly, maybe painfully, it was hard to know what emotions were going through it. It was still a young Pokemon which wasn't wild any more. For Ivysaur that life was over. But it was nice to reminisce over what it previously had. Looking outside was a nice reminder of how it used to live. It yawned and padded around the room before falling asleep in the corner. The other Pokemon slept by the door or around Tristan. They had come a long way in their journey.

Tristan paced around the city looking for the department store. He checked the map, it was a few blocks down and spread the entire half of the block. Tristan looked again, a left here took him to an apartment building. He sighed and got back on the road when a voice yelled from behind him. "Tristan? Tristan, oi," he looked round, surprised at the commotion. The streets weren't very busy at this time of morning. "Tristan , over here mate," the voice yelled. It was clear who it was and Tristan looked happy to see the figure come bounding up to him. It was Steve, he had grown a bit in the few months they hadn't seen each other and his clothes were different. He had an official Pokemon league hat as well. Steve and Tristan slapped hands and began to walk down the path.

"Wow, didn't think you'd be here already," Steve began, "I was ahead of you when I last called professor oak." Tristan shrugged his shoulders, "I've been here for a few weeks. I'm actually at the Pokemon centre if you wanna stay over for the night." Steve took it under consideration. "It would help. See, I've got to be down the bikers path soon and that's gonna take a long time to go down. I'm heading off to fuchsia city next, what about you." Tristan replied, "I'm going to saffron city next because of the gym and-" Steve cut him off, "gyms." Tristan looked at him stunned. "What do you mean gyms? Is there more than one?" Steve laughed, "oh yeah. It's not officially a gym but it's recognised as a former gym until the second gym came over. The rumour is they had a fight between the two gym leaders and the second guy won so the first guy had to pack up and move. It's a fighting dojo now." Tristan said that seemed cool.

"Did you see Mia? I didn't know this but she's on her journey. Her mum told my dad over poker. Apparently she's already beaten 5 gyms." Steve was surprised as he gave out the information and Tristan puffed out air to show his genuine shock. "I met her back in pewter city and she had a Squirtle." "What?" Yelled Steve, "where did she get a Squirtle, I got the Squirtle. Damn, if I'd known that I would have asked for a Charmander." "Yeah, I wanna restart," joked Tristan. "Hey, wanna see this?" He asked and got his badge case out his pocket. He opened it up to reveal four badges, the first three collecting dust. Each badge had a different design unique to their gym. "Nice," said Steve as he stared at it. Tristan paused. "I thought you had more than I did?" Steve smiled and pointed at himself, "well I don't wanna make you feel bad. I've got those 4 plus the one from saffron city. That gym was a bitch." "Why? What was so bad about it?" Steve shrugged, "the woman there controlled psychic types. Yeah, she was pretty tough," he thought back. His battle had been tough. Sabrina had used 4 Pokemon with a range of excellent attacks. Steve had lost a couple early on and had trouble with her alakazam. "You see Tristan. You got to watch for her alakazam, it's the toughest thing I've ever battled. No doubt about that. It took me two goes to beat that gym. You gotta make sure your Pokemon are that level. Make them high because if you don't she's. Gonna destroy you. I only won cos of blastoise." Tristan nodded, "so you got a blastoise now. Congrats mate, that's amazing." "Cheers, how's Bulbasaur? It evolved yet?" Tristan nodded, " but only once." I've caught a few others too. Steve nodded. "Do you want another? I know a guy and a place that is giving away a Pokemon. It's quite a good one too."

Tristan followed the instructions Steve had given him. He had given Steve the key to his room back at the Pokemon centre because Tristan was going to spend the day shopping but had got sidetracked by the interesting proposition Steve had put to him. He climbed the stairs from the back door to the top floor. He was excited at getting this new Pokemon and liked the idea of what it could become. At the top floor, there was a room with a door that you had to go round to enter. Tristan did that and opened the door, half expecting someone in the room. Instead there was the pokeball on the desk as Steve had described. Tristan took it and threw it in the air, excited at seeing the Pokemon that was inside. The ball burst open and a stream of white energy revealed what was inside. A small dog with a white main appeared in front of Tristan, it was very frightened and timid. Tristan got down on one knee and extended an arm. He smiled at the young Pokemon and began to talk to it. "Hello there." He stopped, the Eevee coiled under its tail. Tristan stopped and waited for Eevee to look up. It was frightened, absolutely frightened at seeing Tristan. He took out Dexter and got the pokedex entry for Eevee.

"Eevee. It's genetic code is irregular. It may mutate if it is exposed to radiation from element stones." Interesting, what does that last bit mean said Tristan. Steve had said that Eevee evolves into different Pokemon when you used a stone on it and Tristan figured that. Must be what he had meant. Tristan moved towards Eevee which was crawling under a table. He scanned it with the pokedex. "It knows sand attack, quick attack and double team." It seems to be a high enough level, thought Tristan. He had to wrestle with Eevee to pick it up but managed to calm it down by putting it on the desk and stroking its head. It seemed this Pokemon would take a lot of work to get it to trust any trainer. Tristan wondered if it had a bad experience with a trainer or if it was just naturally shy. Steve had said the guy who offered him the Eevee was someone quite high up in the city. Tristan had suspicions but was told by Steve it was okay to take the Eevee. Tristan released it from the pokeball it was in and took out one of his own just to make sure nothing dodgy was going on. It was a strange thing to find but the Eevee was just sitting there and the whole room looked dusty. He noticed Eevee's eyes were wide open all the time. He shrugged and let Eevee stay on his shoulder and wrap itself around him. Tristan didn't know what it was doing but just went with it. He walked out the room and left as quickly as he could, the whole situation seemed very strange to him.

A few days later and Eevee was still warming to Tristan. Tristan had introduced it to everyone else and all the other Pokemon had made it feel welcome. Tristan was training in an area outside celadon city and had all his Pokemon doing practise battles or powering up their moves. Tristan yells into the sky, "Pidgeotto, use wing attack." Pidgeotto is quick as a flash, completing an arch in the sky with lightning quick reflexes and slapping its wing against the tip of the ground. "Good now again," instructs the trainer. Pidgeotto effortlessly archs downwards with its wing touching the ground and glowing powerfully. "Now I want a sand attack," Pidgeotto flew down quickly and flapped its wings to create a storm of sand that goes in front at an invisible target. "Good, keep up the power and keep getting stronger with these attacks Pidgeotto." Tristan turned his head round to see two vines lashing at the air like a sharp whip. Tristan can hear the crack of the vines lashing. "Quicker," says Tristan and Ivysaur is sweating hard as it ups the tempo. Tristan waits a few minutes, seeing the impressive speed which Ivysaur is delivering its thrusts. "Now dodge an attack to your left and deliver a vine whip." Ivysaur dives to its left, using its back legs to stabilise its body and cracks the vine whip which appears less powerful than before. "OK, not a problem Ivysaur. You need to turn and crack in one movement. The more times we do it, the better you will get." Tristan ran with Ivysaur, practising ducking and dodging his body with his Pokemon as Ivysaur practised the dodge and then the vine whip. Tristan spends all morning doing this with Ivysaur.

In the afternoon, Tristan is ordering sandslash to keep using its dig attack to quickly dive down and jump up when it hears Tristan clap for it. Tristan lays small rocks and dummy targets on the floor and sandslash is practising jumping up where the target is and knocking it over. Eevee is still practising it's quick attack and Tristan calls it over to watch sandslash. He sits down and strokes Eevee in his lap while sandslash is doing a slash exercise, pushing back an invisible target and delivering high power slashes at it while jumping forwards each time. Eevee watched for a few minutes then fell asleep in Tristans lap. Tristan smiled, he didn't like slacking training but he would allow Eevee to get away with it because he was still warming to it.

Tristan is browsing in the celadon department store. He is on the fourth floor, which is where the wiseman gifts are sold. These gifts are very expensive and are the rarest of the rare. Tristan gazes at them through their glass cases and looks at the water stone. He is interrupted by a man who touches his shoulder. "This is the water stone. It evolves water Pokemon. If you look over there," he pointed to his left at a yellow stone In another glass cage. "You'll see a thunder stone. That can get you a raichu or a jolteon." Tristan tilted his head, "what ones work on an Eevee?" The salesman answered him with some finesse. "we have the fire stone for flareon, the thunder stone for jolteon and water stone for vaporeon." Interesting, thinks Tristan but the price is too steep. He can only afford one and only needs one so he buys the stone that suits him. He continues to browse the store but not much else is to his taste apart from some bottles of water and a TM for Rock slide.

Tristan walks into the game corner with the coo case he was given by the gentleman in the cafe and heads to the counter. He trades money for coins to use in the slot machines. After a few games and not much venture, Tristan talked to one of the gamers on the slot machines and was given a huge amount of coins. He found that by talking to people and checking underneath the machines he could get coins. One guy told him about the Pokemon on offer at the prize counter. Tristan had a look at the prize but bulked at the prices. There were some very rare pokemon on offer but Tristan decided against it. Maybe later, he only had 2k in his chin case. The Pokemon on offer were very attractive proposition, he thought as he left. Tristan goes back into the game corner and plays on the slots for an hour but loses money. He notices a man in black at the back of the game corner in a darkened corner. There is a switch which he looks like he is staring at so Tristan decides to investigate, thinking there might be another floor of machines. As he walks up the guy puts a hand in his pocket. Tristan smiles at him and asks, "sorry to bother you, but is there another floor in here for the slots." The guy grits his teeth and Tristan notices the suspicious black jacket he is wearing. "Beat it kid," he replies. Tristan folds his arms, "I'm only wondering. That switch looks like there is another floor underneath. The man stares straight into Tristans eyes, "I said beat it." Tristan shrugs and walks away, but watches the man for the next hour while playing on the slots. He wins big on one game but loses a few in a row. He sees the man leave the switch for a few minutes and Tristan checks outside to watch the man outside having a smoke. Tristan dashes up to the switch and flicks it, to his shock a portion of the wall lifts up and reveals a flight of stairs heading down. Tristan looks round, the view of everyone is obscured by a large row of bookcases and besides everyone is too busy on the machines. Tristan peers down, the stairs go down a while and he thinks about it but decides to risk going down. "It's probably nothing, could be a new floor. Still, it's weird they would hide it from everyone. It might be one of those illegal rings I've heard about, man that would be sweet." He chuckles to himself as he reaches the bottom of the stairs. He stares at the floor in shock. It is evident that the floor is not a room that should have been found. It is not full of people and machines like Tristan imagined, instead there are locked doors and a few people walking about in the shadows. They are too far away to tell who they are but he can hear gruff voices. He decides to hide in the shadows and explore a little. He grabs the first pokeball from his hand that he can find and keeps himself low. He keeps a mental note of where the stairs are for a quick exit that may be necessary. He hears a voice coming from the stairs, "hey it's open." The he hears running down the stairs, he looks up and sees the creepy guy from the game corner running down the stairs and he sees Tristan from the Middle of the stairs. He has taken his jacket off and is wearing a black vest with a giant "R" printed in the middle. Tristan can't make out what it means but is sure the guy means trouble. The guy points at Tristan. "You, how? Never mind that. Kid, you're gonna be sorry you found this place. You're going down." He grabs a pokeball from his belt and throws it and it lands on the floor a few yards away from Tristan. It explodes and reveals a large brown rat with a sabre tooth. "Raticate," it yells and gnarls its teeth. Tristan grabs the pokedex from his pocket and points it frantically at the Pokemon.

"Raticate. It uses its whiskers to maintain its balance. It apparently slows down when they are cut off." Tristan throws out the pokeball in his to reveal sandslash. He breathes a sigh of relief, in a life or death battle the reliable sandslash was what he needed. The grunt reveals himself, "kid, this is team rockets base. You lose and I'm stealing you're pokemon and good luck being seen again. Trust me if you lose this, you ain't getting out ever again." Tristan gulps and begins to feel the pressure. Sandslash slashes its claws together and stares at Tristan, who pulls himself together. "Raticate, destroy him." The team rocket grunt orders and raticate goes flying at Tristan with its teeth bared. Tristan throws his hands in front of his face in fear but raticate is tackled in midair by sandslash who Rams it into a wall and slashes at it. Raticate cannot gain any purchase and is struggling, trying to bite sandslash. "Keep it up sandslash, use poison sting" Tristan orders and sandslash fires a barrage of poison darts at raticate that cause it to scream out in pain. Sandslash jumps a few yards away but raticate throws itself at sandslash and manages to grab its arm with its teeth, sinking them in painfully. Sandslash screams in pain and tries to shake it off but Tristan orders a slash with its other arm which goes right down raticates throat. Raticate flops to the floor and sandslash falls down also, screaming in pain. Raticate is unable to battle and the grunt growls before returning it. He throws out another pokeball to reveal a Zubat which makes a high pitched squeal. "Zubat, use supersonic," orders the grunt. Tristan thinks quickly and orders a dig and sandslash dives under the floor to avoid the attack. The grunt looks around and cannot tell where sandslash will resurface but sandslash resurfaces under Zubat and knocks it against the grunt with a powerful swipe. Zubat screams and Tristan yells at the grunt. "Now what are you going to do? Huh, you better run out of here before I destroy you." The grunt legs it back up the stairs and Tristan hears the sound of the switch activating, leaving the wall to click into place. Tristan gives a potion to sandslash and bandages its arm up. The bite is quite deep and Tristan has to return sandslash. He continues down a corridor before coming to a door less room with a table. Tristan looks at the contents on the table, he finds a moon stone and a key marked, boss' office. Tristan decides to take both and smirks at this stroke of luck. He continues down the hall to find some winding stairs that lead him to another floor. He goes down to find a maze of tiles. Tristan looks at the tiles and they are arrows that point in different directions. They look odd and when he steps on them he is sent spinning onto another tile. His head is left spinning and he wonders what it is. He walks forward and finds himself spinning into another tile. He falls over but begins to understand that stepping on a tile sends you spinning onto the others. There doesn't seem to be anybody on the floor at that moment so Tristan continues on the spinning tile maze until he finds the exit he is after. He turns round to find another guard standing near an elevator. He has one foot against the wall and is watching the floor, quite half assed. Tristan sees the elevator a few yards down from him and decides to make a break for the elevator. The guy sees him easily and yells at Tristan to stop. Tristan dashes to elevator and quickly presses the bottom button, thinking the bottom floor is where he will find whatever secret these people are hiding. The elevator descends quickly and Tristan can hear shouting all through the floors. The elevator dings open and Tristan grabs a pokeball instinctively in his hand and the doors open to reveal a rocket grunt staring him down. He rubs his hands together, "well kid, we've heard about you. You're going down and I'm getting that big promotion I've been waiting for." He throws a pokeball down and Tristan runs out of the elevator and bursts past the man. The pokeball explodes and reveals an Ekans. Tristan grabs his pokedex.

"Ekans. Moves silently and stealthily. Eats the eggs of birds, such as Pidgey and spearow, whole." Tristan stares the Pokemon down, which hisses back. Tristan throws the pokeball in the hand which reveals Eevee. "Eevee," it growls, perhaps a little too cutely and it stares Ekans down. "Well kid, that's a cute pokemon but you have no chance." Tristan raises his eyebrow and orders a quick attack. Ekans is struck before it even knows what has hit it and Eevee follows up with a sand attack but Ekans dodges. "Ekans, show this little punk your wrap attack," yells the grunt and Ekans grabs Eevee and begins to wrap its body around it. Eevee screeches in pain and Ekans hisses as it tightens its wrap and Eevee cannot move. "Eevee use sand attack, " and Eevee manages to get its back legs onto the ground and kick dirt at Ekans which loosens its grip. "Excellent," says Tristan and has Eevee attack with take down. Eevee charges Ekans down and slams it into a wall with a powerful take down. "Ekans use poison sting," orders the grunt and Eevee is assaulted by a barrage of stings that Ekans unleashes at it. Eevee flops to the floor but Tristan orders it to get up. Eevee growls at Tristan but gets up and uses quick attack on Ekans which knocks it to the floor and leaves it unconscious. Eevee rolls over and starts yapping and Tristan runs over to it and picks it up. "Hahaha, you did it." He rubs its stomach and the grunt yells that the battle isn't over. He throws another pokeball in front of him and reveals a bigger snake onto the field. "Try this on for size kid. You're Eevee won't beat my arbok," he smirks confidently. The snake was at least three times the size of Ekans. Tristan called out his pokedex and it scanned the opponent.

"Arbok, it is rumoured that the ferocious warning markings on its belly differ from area to area."

Tristan returns Eevee and throws out the Pokemon he thinks would be best served to battle arbok. The pokeball touches the floor and out of it comes a gigantic scaly dragon that shocks the grunt stiff. Tristan smirks. "You're arbok won't beat my Gyarados." Gyarados roars loudly, shaking the floor underneath the two trainers. "Gyarados, use dragon rage," yells Tristan and Gyarados roars loudly and sends a spinning cyclone which crashes into arbok. Arbok is thrown against a wall and has clearly taken some heavy damage. "How did you get a Gyarados?" Yells the grunt, but it sounds like gibberish and Tristan orders a hydro pump which easily finishes off its opponent. The grunt returns his fallen pokemon and runs for the elevator. Tristan cuts him off, "what's through that door? What are you hiding from the world?" The grunt tries to press a button frantically but Tristan has Gyarados glare at him and he is unable to move. "Look don't hurt me please, and I'll tell you. I'll tell you everything please don't hurt me." He begs at Tristan who stares calmly at him. "Alright, the boss of our whole operation is through those doors. He has the silph scope with him. It's this thing where you can see ghost pokemon, it's a prototype there's like only one left. Please don't hurt me, I've told you everything you need to know." Tristan points at the grunt, "Gyarados return," he holds out the pokeball and Gyarados falls back inside. "This silph scope, what is it? Why hide it?" The grunt talks quickly, trying to save himself. "It's very rare, it was made by silph co. It lets you see the ghost pokemon in lavender town. The boss thinks it's worth loads. He's through that door but kid, if I were you. Turn round. Turn round now, he's a champion. He's a world class trainer. You have no chance."

Tristan turns the key in the lock and bursts through the door. There is a large desk in front of him and a small man jumps up from his seat. "So, you got through. How did you find this hideout? By luck," Tristan nods and Tristan to talk but Giovanni cuts him off. "Don't speak kid, listen. I'm the boss of a huge organisation. Something you couldn't even imagine. We aim to achieve things no ordinary person can dream of, so you will,excuse me for moving you out the way. It's just business. "He throws a pokeball out of his hand and it reveals a gigantic rock-snake. "Onix, take him down," Tristan throws out another pokeball. It reveals Ivysaur. "If you're the boss of an organisation, what are you doing down here?" Tristan asks.

Giovanni has onix use bind and it scoops up Ivysaur and begins to sap its energy by squeezing its body. Ivysaur yells in pain but Tristan has Ivysaur use vine whip and it lashes onix hard with its vines. Onix is forced to release its grip and Ivysaur hits it with another vine whip. Giovanni speaks, "this is my headquarters. This is where the paperwork gets done and you have burst into my office uninvited. Onix, use rock throw." Onix slams its rock hard tail down onto Ivysaur which is caught full on by the impact. "No, you don't, " yells Tristan, "Ivysaur use razor leaf, now." Ivysaur launches a barrage of leaves at onix but onix endures the hit.

"No way," yells Tristan, taking a step back, "that had to beat it." Giovanni laughs manically opposite him. "Onix, use rock throw." Onix thrusts its tail down on Ivysaur and the impact is so powerful Ivysaur is knocked clean out when onix lifts its tail up.

Tristan yells at his Pokemon but Giovanni laughs. "Kid, my pokemon are the toughest in the land. You aren't a boss if you have weak pokemon, kid." Tristan threw out his second pokeball to reveal Pidgeotto and Giovanni laughed. "Kid, you need to get the message. Go rhyhorn," and his pokeball revealed a Pokemon with a big horn. Tristan got out the pokedex.

"Rhyhorn. It's massive bones are 1000 times more powerful than human bones. It can easily knock a trailer flying."

"Go Gyarados," yells Tristan and throws Gyarados out. It's roars impatiently and attacks rhyhorn with a water gun that soaks the office. Rhyhorn is thrown against a wall and Tristan orders another attack. Rhyhorn shocks Tristan by dodging the attack and ramming Gyarados with a horn attack. Gyarados is thrown to the ground and rhyhorn mercilessly attacks Gyarados by piercing it with its tough horn. Tristan orders Gyarados to use water gun but rhyhorn endures the hit without looking too damaged. Gyarados roars. At rhyhorn which roars threateningly back at Gyarados. Giovanni orders horn attack and rhyhorn powerfully jumps onto Gyarados and pierces it before landing a killer horn drill onto it. Gyarados is left unable to battle and Tristan has to return it. "Hahahaha. That's it kid, give up. I told you once, I'm a winner. You're nothing, okay kid. I'm always going to defeat you." Tristan snaps back with a strong defence. "You're not better than me. Just because you're the boss of some organisation don't mean nothing to me. I'm gonna be the champion of Kanto." Giovanni smirked at Tristan, almost undermining what he was saying. "Well, you're an ambitious one aren't you. You got spirit and guts, but you're nothing to me. See that silph scope over there, go on." Tristan stared at him and snatched the scope off the desk. "That thing will help you see ghosts in the lavender tower. Now you're going to get out of here before i lose my patience." He gestures to the door and Tristan runs through. He takes the elevator up and thinks about the long journey he has to make before becoming an elite like Giovanni. Giovanni defeated his Pokemon despite having the type disadvantage. Tristan thinks a lot more training is required for all his Pokemon.

Tristan is at a clearing in a forest near celadon city doing some more training. He has been training non stop for two weeks because he lost so badly to Giovanni. He realised how much training was truly required to get to the top. Ivysaur has learnt leech seed and Tristan has noted how much more powerful its vine whip and razor leaf have gotten. He has Ivysaur use vine whip on a tree and keeps lashing it until it breaks. Tristan claps his hands and whistles at Ivysaur, pleased with its new power. Gyarados is in the river, practising its dragon rage. It whips up a cyclone of water and then hurls it across the river and it washes up on the bank. The attack looks very powerful and Tristan tells Gyarados to improve its water gun. "The more powerful water gun is, the less trouble I'll have with battling rock and ground types." Gyarados roars at him and begins to shoot powerful jets of water downstream. Excellent, thinks Tristan and he looks at Eevee. It is shooting round an area designed for its quick attacks. It is a circular area that Tristan created and Eevee is not allowed outside the arena. It is designed to better it's turning movements. Eevee uses sand attack which involves powerfully kicking its hind legs and shooting mud and sand at its opponent. The attack will blind the opponent and lower the accuracy of their moves. Tristan looks at his pokedex and looks up the moves that Eevee can learn. He isn't too impressed by the move set but thinks about what he could evolve Eevee into. At midday he calls the Pokemon over for lunch, apart from Gyarados who he throws a few fish. Gyarados happily chomps them up, then goes hunting down the depths of the river. Eevee is ravished and gnaws feistily at its food, the basic pokemon food that every PokeMart has. Ivysaur ate seeds and Pidgeotto ate the insects that the PokeMart sold at high prices in big batches. Sandslash liked to dig for its own food. Though it was a member of Tristans team, a trainer had to recognise the habits of their Pokemon. Everyone enjoyed lunch and Tristan talked to his Pokemon about what was going to come in the next week.

"Right, now we're all sitting down. I know Gyarados isn't here but it's more of a rogue than any of you and to be honest we can do this talk without it. All 4 of you need to listen carefully. In the next week, we will have reached saffron city, it's not far now. In that city is a gym, a tough gym. It deals in something we've never seen before." All his Pokemon gaze at him curiously. "It's a psychic gym. Now let that sink in. Psychic Pokemon have the power to move things with their mind. It's crazy, it's not even something I can imagine but despite this we can still beat them. We have to beat them. They may be strong, but they have their weaknesses. The reason these training sessions have been so difficult is because we need to get to a level where we can compete with these psychic types. They are going to be tougher than anything you have expected so far. But, I do have some strategies. They have attacks like confusion, which Ivysaur you came up against once. They can lift you up and take control of your body and throw you down and against walls. We need to be able to stop them getting to that stage, we need to be quicker than them. Eevee, you're quick attack will be useful there. Sandslash, your dig attack will be useful. Ivysaur I might need you two. I'm certainly going to use Gyarados because of its power. Steve told us everything about her. The gym leader has an alakazam which will fight Gyarados. That the way things are going to go. Eevee, you're going to be used first. Pidgeotto, you've faced three gyms already and you did great against Erika but you're gonna have to sit this one out. I'm not sure you are what I'm looking for in this gym battle. Sandslash and Eevee, I'm going to do more training with you two. Eevee, gym battles are tougher than any other battle so don't go in thinking you're going to win easily. Does everyone understand?"

Tristan scanned the circle at all their faces. Pidgeotto had its head turned away. Preening its feathers. Ivysaur just nodded, as did sandslash. Eevee looked wide eyed at Tristan. Hmm, thought Tristan, and returned everyone to their training schedules.

At the border of saffron city was a sign that said road works meant the city was shut off for the time being, Tristan looked aghast at this sign and scratched his head, there was a building between the gates in sight. "Where am I supposed to go now," hissed Tristan in anger. The map showed him the next city with a gym marked was down in Fuschia city. He followed the path with his finger, if it took him roughly two weeks to get to saffron city it looked like it would take a year to get down to Fuschia City. "Crap," he muttered but decided to try the building. Inside was a man siting at a counter. He had his feet up and was muttering something to himself. Tristan approached him and enquirer about the roadworks problem.

"Hey what's with the roadworks? Is the whole city closed?" Asked Tristan. The guard shook his head. "Nah, it's just your basic works but the city should be reachable in a week, two weeks tops. Boy I'm thirsty." He let that last part out by accident but Tristan picked up on it.

"Say, if you could get a drink. Some tea for instance, would you let a person in." The guard leaned in, "what you saying kid. What you saying?"

Tristan got the tea from his bag and placed it on the desk. "I have some tea. You can have it if it gets me in." The guard stared at the tea and his stomach rumbled. He relented.

"Go kid. I'm not supposed to be letting people in but don't mention me to no one." Tristan gave him thumbs up.

"Cheers, mister," he said and ran out into saffron city. It was a beautiful city with many tall glass buildings. It was a metropolis of modern art and technology. The buildings stood over people like Giants, there were so many floors. There was one building marked silph co which stood out. It must have 50 floors in it. Tristan wowed at the sight.

An important stop of any city is the gym and Tristan ran into the dojo that Steve had talked about. Apparently there was some master fighter there or something. "Hello, I'm here to challenge the fighting dojo master," he yelled and the fighters all stared up from their workouts. One of them approached him. "Hi there kid, " he said and extended his hand. Tristan shook it out and smiled. "So you want to battle the boss. Well you can, but you have to beat four of our best people to get to the boss. We are the fighting type dojo, we deal in fighting type pokemon. Are you ready?" Tristan nodded. "Yeah, I'm really pumped for this," he said and the guy smiled to him. "Excellent, it's always good when their eager. Show us you fighting spirit kid," he said and picked out a partner for Tristan to battle.

"Hey manny, come here. Yeah, leave that alone and get your arse over here. Kid wants a battle and you're our man aren't you." Manny nodded and shook Tristans hand, crunching it in the process. "Ouch," yelled Tristan and stared at the guy in contempt. Manny laughed at him. "Best of luck kid, and don't cry. "

The battle was over quickly with Tristan winning easily. "Unlucky manny. Good battle," Tristan said and shook his hand. Manny smiled at him. "Well done kid, that's one down. You now got three to go. Oi joey, look for smith. I think he's around. He's our next guy." Smith was located and gave Tristan his next match.

"Go sandslash," said Tristan and threw its pokeball onto the field. "Primeape, you're up," yelled smith and prime ape was thrown onto the battlefield. Tristan got out the pokedex.

"Primeape. Always furious and tenacious to boot. It will not abandon chasing its quarry until it's caught."

"Primeape, show us your low kick," ordered its trainer and Primeape attempted to sweep up sandslash with its feet but sandslash jumped the attack and landed a strong slash on prime apes face. Its opponent screamed in anger and its eyes lit up. They burned red with pure rage and smith smiled, "so that's got you now kid. Give him your rage, Primeape." Primeape started pummelling sandslash with its fists, the attack growing in power every time. Sandslash was fending off the blows as it could, but was taking damage, Tristan ordered a dig and sandslash threw itself underground before rising up underneath Primeape and throwing its opponent in the air. Primeape landed heavily on the floor. "Come on Primeape, show this kid what fighting types can do. Karate chop." Primeape struck sandslash with a powerful chop that caused sandslash to fall on its knees and Primeape struck its fallen opponent again. Sandslash instinctively curled up its body and Primeape struck its hand on sandslashs hard spiked body. It keeled up in pain and began to shake its hand to stop the pain. "Good, now finish this with poison sting," ordered Tristan and sandslash threw Primeape against a pillar with its powerful poison sting barrage. Primeape was unable to get up and sandslash was awarded the match. Tristan ran over to sandslash and gave it a hug. "Well done, sandslash," he smiled. "I believe that's two down." He smirked and joey smiled. "We have to say kid, you're tough. We thought you'd be gone by now, but number three is going to be the end. Black belt, come here," another trainer walked over to Tristan, he was a huge guy, easily 7 foot and muscular as anything. He bowed before Tristan, who did the same as a mark of respect. The match began as Tristan closed in on defeating the dojo.


End file.
